Prime Orchestra, Row F, Seat 119. The Filene Center added two
more aisles over the winter, dividing the “Front Orchestra” area into three roughly
equal-sized sections. I was six rows behind the pit, in the middle section on
the right-hand aisle. The view was great, and it was easy to get in and out. Downsides:
there was a surprising volume of other people needing to get in and out past
me, and one of the round lights at the edge of the aisle floor was right next
to me, and bright enough to be annoying.
The bucket list is complete – I have now seen each of my 12
favorite musical acts live. Interestingly enough, I have seen 5 of the 12 exactly
once, while the other 7 I’ve caught on at least 4 occasions.
As I expected, the show was professionally done throughout,
with high levels of musicianship and impeccable staging. Donald Fagen cuts an
interesting figure behind the keyboard, with mannerisms that reminded me a lot
of Ray Charles. At least for me, his vocals tended to get buried underneath the
band – not sure whether this had anything to do with my aging ears and/or my
location in the audience. (On the other hand, their female vocal trio, the “Danettes”,
came through loud and clear.)
The first hour or so of the 110-minute set featured a few of
my personal
favorites (“Hey Nineteen”, “Black Friday”, “Kid Charlemagne”), along with a
couple of the more meandering cuts from Aja and a few selections that
seemed to be deliberately obscure – most notably, for the first time on this
tour, “Any Major Dude Will Tell You”. Things really picked up when the Danettes
handled the vocals on “Dirty Work”, followed by rousing renditions of “Bodhisattva”,
“Keep That Same Old Feeling” (a cover of a track by the Crusaders that was used
to finish the band intros), “Peg”, and finally “My Old School”. “Reelin’ In The
Years” was a perfect choice for the first encore, and an instrumental take on
Joe Williams’ “A Man Ain’t Supposed To Cry” ended the performance.
The evening opened musically with an impressive 45-minute
set of jazz by the Dave Stryker Trio, with Stryker on guitar, Jared Gold on the
organ, and McClenty Hunter handling drums. Prior to that, there was a short
burst of rain just before 6:00; fortunately, I had made it to the Associates
Pavilion for dinner just before the heavens opened. Following the show, I didn’t
make it out to the parking lot all that quickly, but I somehow managed to get
out of the parking lot in under five minutes, and arrived back home just an
hour after the music stopped.
I think I mentioned already that we saw Steely Dan just months prior to Becker's passing. He spoke one sentence all night. "It's great to be in New Jersey." It was a great show and I was pleasantly surprised at how good they sounded. I agree with your Ray Charles analogy. Heard my personal favorite: "My Old School." I smiled through the entire show. Constantly reminded me of your stereo system in Funkhouser and the proper way to put an album back in its cover. Good memories.
ReplyDeleteYou don't happen to remember the date of the show you attended? I'd love to look up the setlist.
DeleteSpeaking of which, you might be interested in checking out the song counts from the current tour. (I would have loved to have heard Bad Sneakers, Don't Take Me Alive, and The Goodbye Look.)
https://www.setlist.fm/stats/steely-dan-7bd6be38.html?tour=7bded600
Since my memory failed me on two counts here, I'll save you the trouble. First, the concert occurred in 2016 (Becker died in 2017) at the PNC Center in Holmdel, NJ, and second, according to the set list, My Old School was not performed (although it was performed during this tour). Stevie Winwood performed first and was excellent, especially when he played the old stuff from Blind Faith and the Spencer Davis Group (although take my memories with a grain of salt).
ReplyDeleteHmm ... when I look at the July 6 set list, I see My Old School as the final pre-encore number, as it has been on the current tour.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to have heard Razor Boy and Show Biz Kids. (Did you get a "Steely Dan T-shirt"?)
Winwood was scheduled to open the show in 2020. It's been a long, strange trip to get an opener this year.
I did not purchase a tee shirt. Stevie Winwood was great. When he sang the Blind Faith songs, I remember thinking, "I never thought I'd actually experience this." Loved it.
ReplyDeleteNice piece this morning on CBS Sunday Morning on the Doobies.
ReplyDeleteCaptain And Me, and What Were Once Vices ... were both pretty damn good LPs.
Delete